Smalma....you are on target again. I got roasted a couple of times for pointing out that the WSC has a verrrry narrow agenda. I did not say that was bad but applauded them for figuring out how to work the system to get results they were after. Unfortunately most fishing groups are so narrowly focused that trying to get them all together moving in the same direction is impossible (so far). I see the WSR rule as a blip on the radar screen that caused a tempest in a teapot. All this ballyhooing about WSR on a handful of rivers while the tribes continue to overharvest wild fish with abandon. They have got to be laughing in their teepees at how divided we are and how we can do so little about the real problems while we sling mud at each other over the small things.

You should know by now that this board is 90% steelhead oriented so a lack of "big picture" debate including other species should be no shock to you.

I bet there is a website dedicated to Walleye back in Minnesota where locals took one of the state's biggest lakes and brought the Walleye back from the brink of extinction and were instrumental in creating a very viable sports fishery...The fishing had disappeared on this large popular lake and after a 10-12 year battle the lake was teaming with Walleye again....Then guess what happened?

The local indian tribes claimed fishing rights on the Walleye that they did nothing to restore..(they were the cause of the intial decline in fact) ....and they started gill netting! YES gill netting Walleye....soon Safeway was selling Walleye and not long thereafter the lake was back where it had been 12 years earlier.....almost devoid of fish.

So go ahead and release wild steelhead, work your butts off on habitat restoration. shut down the hatcheries....The laughing you hear in the distance is coming from those teepees. We need to stop maligning each other and look to where the real problem is.